Originally Posted by mikec4193
I gotta couple of questions...you don't use 1st gear to start out from a stop??...I have 215-75-15's on mine (28" tall I believe) (I have not driven it yet)...so I am wondering what height tires I will need to get that kind of speed out of my 3800 1 ton...how tall are your tires???...

current tires

rear tires

Also where is all the traffic???...I have over 4,000 cars a day on my roadway in front of my road...and that's a 2 lane side road...

One last thing how is the truck on gas mileage with that set-up??

Any insight would be wonderful..

MikeC


1st gear in a Muncie 420 is used for pulling something really heavy. Final drive ratio is 30+:1. Anything over 16:1 is pretty low. My Muncie 420 shifts like a dream but its functionally a 3-speed and the gearing is pretty wide in ratio for modern driving. If you could mate our old engines to a modern 5-speed automatic or a 6-speed manual they would really come to life - in my opinion.

My 1-ton gets horrible mileage with its stock 235, 4:10 gears and 28" tires. But I don't care. I drive it for fun. When I have a bad day at work, its there to enjoy. I am doing the T-5 swap as it offers a lot of advantages in gear ratios through all 5 gears for modern driving.


1953 GMC 1-Ton Pickup with 350 and 700R4